Monday, 18 November 2013

It felt as though I'd become totally bogged down and uninspired when I was painting Chee-Chee's gun arm so I moved on to the big mecha arm with some trepidation. As it turns out my fears were without foundation and painting the mecha arm has been a pleasure and restored all my enthusiasm for this mini!

I've already had a lot of fun painting different NMM effects on Chee-Chee and the big mecha arm is giving me the opportunity to push things further and experiment with painting some damaged and distressed surfaces. With the exception of a bit of verdigris it's the first time I've attempted anything like this as I've been very focused on getting a clean smooth finish on all my recent projects. So far so good and it feels like the paint job is beginning to come together as a whole and give a unified feel to the mini without everything all looking the same.

For the most part this is down to the use of a fairly restricted colour palette. Just a couple of key colours are used for the highlights & shading and this helps to tie everything together. The palette has many similarities with those used on both the Tomb King & Scourge earlier this year so I'm glad that I chose to paint the Skink Priest in-between those projects and Chee-Chee. Switching between a saturated and more muted palette helps to keep things fresh it also stops me slipping into 'auto pilot' mode and just doing more of the same out of habit.

Monday, 4 November 2013

It's been a bit of a hard slog recently. There's been less time available for painting than I'd like and when I've picked up a paintbrush I've struggled to get the quality of finish I want. It's just one of those things we all have to deal with from time to time but that dosen't make it any less frustrating.

I'm having to put a lot of time into refining the paint job to get things to the level I want. That's not really a problem but it's a bit of a shift in approach after I had it so (comparatively) easy with the Skink Priest! Thankfully the extra effort feels like it's going to pay of as I'm beginning to get some pleasing results. I'd gotten a bit bogged down on the gun arm so I need to move on and work on some of the other area and not focus too much on just one part of the mini.

The slower painting progress has given me time to consider the size and composition of the overall piece and my ideas have begun to come together. I've decided on a smaller composition than I'd first planned. I think my initial concept of the zoo walls and gate were in serious danger of overpowering the mini! I'm going with the same idea but it will be a tighter composition and Chee-Chee will be the dominant element. Which is just as it should be!

I've also had a bit of fun developing some poster artwork to go onto the zoo walls.

Who is Sproket?

I’m a Graphic Designer and Illustrator, now retired, who has become a full time hobbyist. With the exception of a few years where I dropped out of the hobby I’ve been painting minis since I was in my teens. Over the years I've won a few trophies for my painting and four Slayer Swords but my quest to grow and develop as a painter continues - there is always something new to learn!